Odd trademark on a Schrade/Ulster Knife

[knifeaholic]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0412337387

The knife looks like an Ulster made knife....anyone recognize that trademark?

[orvet]

Thanks for posting this Steve. It helped to gel my thinking on this Ulster pattern, which has puzzled me for some time.

Here are a couple pics from the ebay auction-

Notice the Delrin handles on this knife. The seller lists it as having Delrin handles and the pictures seem to confirm that. Delrin was not patented until 1956 and DuPont built their first plant to produce Delrin in Parkersburg WV in 1960: (source- Wikipedia). Camillus introduced Delrin on some of their knives in the early 1970’s: (source- Tom Williams).

With Delrin handles the knife has to date after 1960, and most likely after 1970 when use of Delrin became more common in the cutlery industry. The Schrade Walden was moved to Ellenville c. 1958. I believe the Ulster & Schrade Walden production had been shifted to the Schrade plant in Walden prior to the move to Ellenville.

I do not believe this Delrin handled knife was made by Ulster, I think Camillus made them. I have an Ulster in this pattern that appears to be built on the same frame as the Camillus #72, a model Camillus called a “Whittler.” My Ulster example has shrunken black handles; I suspect it is jigged celluloid. It would predate the use of Delrin; I suspect it was made in the 1950s or 1960.

Here are a couple pics comparing an Ulster swell center to a couple Camillus #72 whittlers.
Notice how the frame is the same.
Notice the swedge ground clip blades. The only significant difference is that the Ulster does not have a matchstriker pull.

I am starting to be of the opinion that these swell centered Ulsters were made by Camillus for Imperial Schrade Corp. All of these Ulsters I have seem to have the later Ulster tang stamps. I have not seen one that has a pre-1941 (the date Albert Baer bought Ulster Knife Co from Dwight Divine’s sons); all have had later stamps with sans-serif lettering.

If anyone has examples of this swell centered Ulster of has information on them, I would be grateful for any pictures or insights you may have.



Now Steve, back to your question; I do not recognize the name on this knife. If I am right and it was made by Camillus, perhaps Tom Williams will have some of the S-cards (a form production record) from the Camillus factory and could confirm if Camillus did or did not make this knife and the S-card may even have the name of the company it was made for. I think the knife was probably a SFO, likely for a hardware store.
This is my current theory Steve; I would love to hear what you think.

[tjmurphy]

Here is the Ulster that I have that is just like the Camillus 72. This one is marked 63.

MVC-097F.JPG (41.94 KiB) Viewed 1438 times

[knifeaholic]

Thanks Dale

I thought "Ulster" since all Camillus stamped examples of this pattern that I have seen have had the checkered pull or "match striker" pull on the main clip blade whereas the Schrade and Ulster stamped examples that I have seen did not.

I guess if one could find a Schrade or Ulster marked example of the pattern with Swinden rivet construction it would prove that the Schrade/Ulster plant made at least a portion of them. I know a lot of them were made for Sears with the CRAFTSMAN logo, I have only seen those with regular not checkered pull on the main blade.